A federal grand jury has indicted two-time presidential candidate John Edwards in a campaign finance investigation.

The criminal charges filed Friday came after a two-year federal investigation into money used to cover up an extramarital affair during the 2008 presidential election.

Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina, said in a statement through his attorney in 2009 that he was confident no funds from his campaign were used improperly.

But federal officials have said the hundreds of thousands of dollars two Edwards donors gave to help keep his mistress in hiding were contributions that should have been reported publicly by his campaign fund because they aided his bid for the Democratic White House nomination.

Now, I think we should all take a moment to reflect on this, and show ourselves to be bigger people by NOT gloating or expressing any joy or pleasure over this news. We are, after all, adults, and better people, and, and, and....

I agree. I don’t understand how they have gone after this guy when there are others who have done worse and are making themselves filthy rich off the American taxpayer. Hillary and Bill the rapist are two examples

Now lets go after the girlfriend..The woman knew he was married and she is a slut and got pregnant anyway..I wonder how many abortions she had when she was with other men..Or maybe she stayed on the pill until she found a sucker like Edwards..

I’m almost indifferent on this one. He’s probably guilty and probably should go to prison for it, but he has not done serious damage to my country, nothing like the damage he did to his own family.

I’ll be excited when Obama joins him under indictment. In the history of the United States, no single person has done more damage to our country than the drug-addled communist from Chicago/Hawaii/Kenya/Indonesia, and I will be thrilled to pay all expenses for a lifetime stay in the appropriate federal penitentiary for that lazy community organizer.

26
posted on 06/03/2011 7:28:19 AM PDT
by Pollster1
(Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)

How appropriate. Amazing that he had the attention and vote of many, many clueless Americans. This is why I belong to and donate to Free Republic.com..........to out the commies, marxists, trotskites, leninists, stalinists, oligarchs, elite, aristocrats, liberals, progessives, RINOS, leftists, DUers, etc.

The case of USA v. Johnny Reid Edwards contains six counts, including conspiracy, four counts of illegal campaign contributions and one count of false statements. The indictment was returned in the Middle District of North Carolina Friday.

An Edwards spokeswoman said she wasn’t aware of the filing and declined immediate comment.

Raleigh, N.C.  A federal grand jury has indicted two-time Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on four counts of illegal campaign contributions, one count of conspiracy and one count of false statements.

A warrant has been issued for his arrest, and he is expected to appear in a Winston-Salem courtroom Friday afternoon.

The indictment follows a high-profile investigation that lasted more than two years into how Edwards' 2008 campaign covered up his affair with staffer Rielle Hunter, who later gave birth to his daughter.

Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina, hasn't publicly discussed the investigation since releasing a statement through his attorney in 2009 in which he said he was confident no funds from his campaign were used improperly.

Although he considered a plea deal in the case, his Washington, D.C.-based attorney, Greg Craig, has asserted that Edwards didn't break any laws and that the government was chasing a misguided prosecution.

The federal investigation zeroed in on money from Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, a 100-year-old heiress to pharmaceutical and banking fortunes and a major donor to Edwards' campaign, and from wealthy Texas lawyer Fred Baron, who served as Edwards' campaign finance chairman.

Mellon gave $3.4 million in late 2007 to The Alliance for a New America, a nonprofit supporting Edwards' candidacy. Former Edwards aide Andrew Young wrote last year in his tell-all book, "The Politician," that Mellon also gave Edwards $700,000 as a gift for personal use.

Young told WRAL News in a 2010 interview that Mellon was in the dark about how her money  campaign workers commonly referred to the checks she wrote as "Bunny money"  was being used.

According to Young, Baron financed flights and paid $20,000 a month in rent on a California home for Hunter and Young's family during the period when Young pretended to be the father of Hunter's baby to protect Edwards from negative publicity.

Young also told WRAL News that Baron paid him $325,000 to finish his own home back in Chapel Hill so it could be sold when he moved to California.

Baron died from cancer in 2008, but his widow appeared before the federal grand jury in Raleigh in January. Investigators also interviewed Mellon twice at her estate in Virginia, and some of her family members testified before the grand jury in December.

Hunter, Young and other campaign insiders testified before the grand jury in 2009.

If Edwards goes to trial to fight the charges and loses, sentencing guidelines would factor in the money involved in the cover-up. A case involving $1 million to $2.5 million could signal a prison sentence of 51 to 63 months.

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